Banks hit by the global financial crisis have cut 20,000 branches across the whole European Union, according to new research.
New figures showed banks closed 5,500 branches, or 2.5% of the total, in 2012.
The EU now has 20,000 fewer outlets than it had when the financial industry was plunged into crisis in 2008.
Last year's cuts come after 7,200 branches were axed in 2011, according to European Central Bank (ECB) statistics analysed by Reuters.
Banks across Europe have been closing branches in a bid to trim operating costs and improve their battered earnings.
Branches account for around 60% of retail banking costs, including property and refurbishment spending as well as staff pay, Deutsche Bank researchers have estimated.
Consumer take-up of online and telephone banking services has accelerated the trend to shut down banks in the community.
The data show EU banks cut 8% of branches in aggregate in the four years to the end of 2012, leaving 218,687 branches, or one for every 2,300 people.
Last year's sharpest cuts were largely in states hardest hit by financial problems in recent years.
Crisis-stricken Greece saw one of the biggest contractions in 2012, shedding 5.7% of its outlets, as mergers of local banks led to 219 branch closures.
The trend is expected to continue into 2013 as Piraeus shuts some of the 312 branches it snapped up from stricken Cypriot lenders in March.
Spain, where massive loan losses have put banks under fierce pressure to cut costs, lost 4.9%, or 1,963, of its branches in 2012.
Ireland's branch network contracted by 3.3% and is expected to shrink again in 2013, while Italy's network was 3.1% smaller by the end of the year.
Branch numbers were on the rise in some eastern European countries including Poland (up 4%), the Czech Republic (up 2.3%) and Lithuania (up 1.8%).
In Britain, the ECB data showed the number of branches remained little changed at 11,870.
:: The ECB gathers data on lenders' branch networks across the EU, and the data reviewed included the 27 EU member states at the end of 2012.
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